The Life of Us
by Hawkflight7
Summary: Whoever said relationships were easy must have been muggles. Cause it's not. A witch and wizard falling in love is never easy. Especially when the little facts are hidden away for months on end. "That's certainly a feat in itself."-Andromeda


**The Life of Us - c1**

**Summary: Whoever said relationships were easy must have been muggles. Cause it's not. A witch and wizard falling in love is never easy. Especially when the little facts are hidden away for months on end. "That's certainly a feat in itself."-Andromeda**

**This is for HermioneLunaPotter. Will have five chapters in total.**

**Part of A Different Fic Exchange and The Halloween Pumpkin Challenge.**

**In this Andromeda went to Hogwarts while Ted went to... some other magical school, so they've never met eachother before. Starts about a month after her graduation from Hogwarts.**

**Prompts used: wonder, aquatic, "I want to hide the truth, I want to shelter you."- Demons (Imaginary Dragons), pumpkin.**

"Why would you want to do _that_?"

Orion Black's words cut like glass through the cold morning air in the sitting room. Her ears rung from his loud voice, so much so that Andromeda wondered briefly if her ears were bleeding. "Because," she started only to then notice the arrival of her mother that had been masked by her uncle's vocal cords. He really was loud...

"What is it now?" Druella asked from the doorway, leaning against the wood panel as she gazed at the two, long black and silver strands flowing in waves over her shoulders. Her mothers own voice sounded thicker than normal due to a cold she had been developing later the other night. The potion had obviously not cleared it up as fast as the woman would have liked.

"Your daughter wants to go see some ridiculous muggle tradition revolving around Halloween." Orion's nose twitched in distate at just saying the word, muggle. It made her want to roll her eyes in exasperation but, thankfully, she kept herself in check. Being reprimanded for not being 'lady-like' wasn't something she wanted to deal with this early on in the day.

She expected the usual eye brow raise from her mother whenever one of her daughters was caught doing something the rest of the family thought was odd. Like when Narcissa and Bellatrix were found to be giving their desserts to the house elf, Kreacher. "And?" Andromeda had to blink back her surprise when her uncle recieved the raised brow.

Orion looked shocked as well for a moment but quickly composed himself. Well, no one called her mother unpredictable without a solid reason. One of the many that could now be added to the rather short list. "She shouldn't trouble herself with anything muggle related." He huffed, glancing toward Andromeda then back to Druella.

After mimicking her brother's huff and receiving a scowl in response Druella smiled before glancing to Andromeda. Her skin prickled at the studying gaze of those dark brown orbs. One side of her lip twisted up, in such a way one could only describe it as delicately. The side that Orion couldn't see because of where he sat. "Then she should go and see this ridiculous tradition so that she can know from expierence just how ridiculous it is." Her mother spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "She can't learn it for herself if you don't let her."

Andromeda had to fight to surpress her smile and nodded quickly. "I'll tell you all about the ridiculousness when I get back." Briefly looking to Orion, she noticed how he looked between the two as if suspecting foul play. "See you later Uncle." she said before turning and walking out of the room into the hallway, the voices from the room continued to follow her all the way out to the front door.

"Why are you trying to undermine me?"

"Remind me Orion, what grade did you get for _your_ NEWT class?"

"What NEWT class?"

"Precisely."

She almost couldn't believe her ears as she laced up her boots. _That_ joke was still going on? Holding back her laugh she opened the door and stepped outside. A quick glance to her right and left confirmed that no muggles were nearby and she apparated. The only evidence that she had been standing on the sidewalk a moment before was the echo of a loud crack.

_Snap._

She appeared directly inbetween some corn stalks taking a moment to catch her breath. Inadvertently drinking in the scent of freshly moved dirt, a rather sweet tinge wafting from her right, and animal manure. Hmm, she could rather do without that last one. Turning her head she noticed that she was right at the edge of the corn field, right next to one filled with sugarcane. Andromeda waited for a second then smirked. It would seem she hadn't alerted any non-wizards nearby of her sudden appearance.

Pushing through the corn stalks for a minute she emerged from the green sea to reach her destination. Muggles were everywhere; the children screaming as they raced around the varied colors of food stalls, all ages gathered around a fenced in pen, parents called for their children to slow down, and-Was that a _camel_?

The brown furred creature looked back at her as Andromeda stared at it. Blinking long lashed eyes before the creature ducked it's head down and grabbed a chunk of grass with it's teeth, tearing it up from the ground to chew slowly. Looking at the humped back she noticed some blanket thrown over it then at the large wood structure she had mistaken for a food stall at first. There was a man at the top along with a kid who being raised off the platform to be settled on the back of the camel and strapped in to a device mostly hidden by the blanket.

"Huh."

Well, she would certainly have something to tell her mother and uncle about when they asked how her day went.

Looking out at the crowd she hesitated from stepping out of the corn stalks shadows. The girls her age who she had first figured she could blend in with wouldn't be very easy to well... blend with. Most of them were wearing short skirts that stopped mid-thigh, in varied colors that were mostly bright. The shirts were equally bright colored, sleeves either stopping inches below the shoulder or halfway down the lower arm. Andromeda tugged at her own attire self-consciously. The black silk slipped easily between her fingers, moving over the dark green cotton ribbon around her waist that was tied at the back. She was rather aware of her more conservative dress at that moment. The straps along her shoulders were atleast three and a half inches long, the neckline high rather than slightly dipped like the other girls here. Then there was the jacket she had thrown on as well, also dark green, the sleeves stopping at her wrists. She had left it unbuttoned.

Why did muggle fashions have to change so much more swiftly than her own?

She bit into her bottom lip for a moment before abruptly releasing it then rolled her eyes at herself. After all, no one was here to reprimand her for it. Tugging her purse further up onto her shoulder she stepped into the throng, briefly running her fingers through her brown locks.

Walking through the crowd she passed the vendors and various attractions to the pumpkin field beyond. Her heels seemed to dig into the loose soil with each step, going deeper whenever she happened to step on a small mound. She wandered through the fields keeping to herself as she glanced around at the various sizes of pumpkins.

There was some rather tiny ones that she could hold in the palm of her hand that she found to be quite cute. She kept inspecting the bunch around her, until a shadow fell over the one she was currently looking at. Seeing that it wasn't the shade of a cloud she glanced up to see a boy standing there looking to be around her age. Dressed in rather plain dark brown slacks, a loose fitting blue shirt with the cuffs folded back once as if the sleeves were to large. There was a pair of scissors in his hands-or they looked like them anyways.

She blinked at the sharp edges, rocking back slightly on her heels. "You need help picking that?"

For a moment Andromeda was confused and glanced from the small pumpkin in her hand and up to him noticing the stem was still attached to the mess of vines. "Yes, please." she had orginally been thinking of taking out her wand to pick it but this way she wouldn't have to risk it. Crouching down next to her he took the stem in his hands bringing the pair of blades down so only an inch of the stem was left on the mini pumpkin. "Thank you." Turning to give him a smile as she was no longer convinced that she would be getting stabbed she noticed there was a smudge of dirt across his cheek and raised her hand to lick her thumb before moving forward to brush it across the skin, effectively getting rid of the dirt.

His light green eyes blinked at her and she could feel her cheeks begin to flame. This was going to be one of those moments that she wished she had a time-turner to go back and not repeat her previous actions. One of them where she hated her upbringing. Damn it. She was so acustomed to other people all around her doing these sort of things but she always forgot what was considered normal and what wasn't for muggles.

"Sorry." she managed and withdrew her hand quickly when she realized her finger was still pressed lightly to the side of his face making her blush even harder. "Bad habits die hard."

Seeing the upward tilt to his lips she felt her shoulders loosen slightly in relief. "It's fine. You have a lot of younger siblings then that like to play in mud puddles?" He was joking and it made her smile in response. Atleast that hadn't completely backfired on her.

"No. Actually. Two sisters around the same age, but my mother does it all the time to family and friends so I just kinda picked it up from her." she explained while standing up with the small pumpkin clasped in her left hand before dropping it into an inner pocket of her coat being careful to put it in the non-extended one. Her gaze followed him as he stood up, shaking his head slightly making his light-colored hair bounce around for a moment. "I'm Andromeda." she said, extending a hand to be awarded with a firm grasp on her fingers that warmed her skin.

"Ted. Well, Edward, but I go by Ted." he let go of her hand after the introductions. "I'm volunteering around here. Do you need anymore help with your pumpkin hunting?"

She considered it for a moment, not wanting to necessarily take up more of his time but it would probably be best to have someone here to help her find a larger pumpkin that she could actually carve. It was the main reason she had come here. Finding the cute one currently in her pocket was just a bonus. "Yes. That would be great. I was looking for a large one orginally to carve one of those faces into."

"This way then," he said leading her toward the part of the patch with larger pumpkins. "What sort of design were you thinking of making?"

His question caught her by surprise as she hopped over a row of medium sized pumpkins. "I-" she began to only pause, "I'm not sure yet. What would you reccomend for a beginner?"

His hand had reached out to steady her after the jump and she gave him another small smile in thanks. "You've never carved a pumpkin before?" he seemed surprised at this.

"My family doesn't celebrate Halloween to the extent of others." she hoped a brief explanation would work best. "I actually had to convince them to let me come here, my mother was in a good mood this morning so I took advantage of it."

"Your parents sound a little strict."

She laughed softly. "They're just old fashioned." Surely her clothes made this even more evident. She was starting to feel out of place again and quickly changed the topic, "You said designs rather than just faces for the pumpkins? What sort of designs?"

"There's three ways to do it. The first being the usual faces. They're generally less complicated unless you want to go all out. The second is silhoutes, which can be of a ghost, skeleton, whatever you consider to be Halloween-like. The third is where you just scratch away the skin to make an image. Some people combine all three techniques but that's not really for a beginner. You would end up with a multilated pumpkin." She laughed at the last few words to hear him join in with his own chuckling soon after, only to stop sooner than hers. "Finding a good pumpkin is the first task though," Andromeda fought down her own giggles when he resumed speaking, "we can start the search with this one." He dropped down to crouch beisde one and she knelt next to him.

"How do you know if it's good or not?" she asked her interest piqued. What the muggles did with these pumpkins was rather interesting and she figured some must be better for the carving than others.

"You look to make sure there's no nicks, bruises or cuts on the flesh." He demonstrated for her as he turned the pumpkin around from its spot on the ground, brushing dirt off as he did and she noticed the fact that it was clinging to the underside of his nails. No wonder he had a smudge before, soon his fingers were caked in dirt while all sides of the pumpkin could be more or less seen. It kinda depended on the angle he held it at. He tapped at a dark spot on the pumpkin. "That's a bruise, so this one is no good. Especially if you wanted to eat the seeds within later."

As he turned to the next nearest pumpkin she scooted closer. "Eat the seeds?" She wasn't sure how that would be very appetizing. The seeds were always removed from any grapes in her house and various other fruits.

"Yeah. Just coat them in a bit of oil and salt and then put it in the oven. Okay, this one seems fine." His words made her turn her eyes from him to the pumpkin and she felt heat travel up her cheeks at how openly she had been observing him before. He had looked rather concentrated while working. Landing her gaze on the pumpkin she nodded slightly. "Now, if you just," when his hand suddenly wrapped around hers she was sure her cheeks were burning as he led her fingers to the stem and curl around it. "try to bend it and it takes an effort to bend then that's another sign it's good." She applied some preassure while his hand was still around hers adding his own, when the stem only gave a little he gave a nod of satisfaction. "Lastly if you knock on it and it sounds hollow that means it's ripe." With her hand still in his he brought it down to tap on the skin of the pumpkin. Ignoring the flames racing up her neck to lick up her face she listened for the hollow sound. "This one should do." Only now letting go he reached for the stem again and cut the pumpkin from the patch.

"About the pumpkin seeds," she began slowly while bring her hand back to settle in her lap. "would there be enough in one pumpkin to share with multiple people or would I have to get more pumpkins?"

"Oh one pumpkin should be enough." He said while picking up the pumpkin he had just cut from the patch and brushing off the dirt with his hands. "There's five hundred seeds in each pumpkin, the bigger seeds for eating can only be taken from a medium to large pumpkin."

When he paused again she took the chance to ask another question, "What kin-" she stopped for a second, causing him to glance at her. Andromeda had been about to ask what kind of spell could be used to get the seeds out. She had to remember that she was talking with a muggle. If she was alone she might have cursed at herself for being an idiot. With his gaze on her she gave a small flustered smile, "How would someone go about getting the seeds out from the pumpkin?"

"If you plan on doing faces for the pumpkin then you'll have to carve it anyways so you would get the seeds out then." He stood up with the pumpkin and she got up from her crouched position on the ground. "Do you need hel-?"

"How do you ca-sorry." she said quickly. They had ended up asking a question at the same time.

He shook his head. "No, it's fine. What was your question?" Ted started walking back toward the main mass of people and various stalls.

She walked after him giving herself a moment to wait for the familiar heat on her cheeks to fade away. "I just wanted to know how you would carve the pumpkin." It would seem stupid to her wizard and witch friends but she wanted to do this without magic, which meant she would need to know how to go about it.

"You don't know how to carve a pumpkin?" he sounded rather incredolous. "Your parents really must not be into Halloween, or have bad memories of it."

She laughed. "No-no that's not... quite it. I mean, I know you have to carve the pumpkin, and I know it requires a knife and cutting off a part at the top. So I know how to carve it in the technical sense of the word." When she looked up from the ground moving slowly beneath her she was met with a chuckle, those sea green orbs sparkling at her.

"Technical sense, huh? I think you need my help more than the other people here, come on." He reached out and knowing he was reaching for her hand she extended it so he could grasp her fingers before they started walking again. Her cheeks were feeling warm again, along with the hand that was encased by his. "Hmm, now where was is? Oh, right there." she tried to follow his gaze but whatever he was looking for he had spotted quickly and tugged her gently toward a stall that kind of looked like a larged pitched tent, orange at the sides with a green flag sticking out of the top.

As Ted pushed the curtain aside her eyes widened for a moment. It was like a pumpkin wonderland with all the decorations; fake green paper vines covering the ceiling of the tent, mini pumpkins like the one in her pocket were scattered around the room with faces drawn on them in black, the tables were covered in a lighter orange paper covering. As her gaze landed on the tables her eyes widened further. "Pumpkin Massacere Wonderland." she thought outloud, seeing a few people at some of the tables dipping their hands into the pumpkin to come up with what looked like orange string.

There was a loud laugh next to her and she turned to stare at Ted who had started uncontrollably laughing. Seeing her look at him though he quickly sobered, a snicker escaping from him every other second. "Yeah I guess were not really nice to the pumpkins here. Want to murder yours?" he chuckled again while raising her pumpkin up and setting it on one of the empty tables. "Pick your weapon." he waved his now empty hand at a few knives set on the table in varying sizes.

"Sure." she said not able to stop a giggle from escaping her lips as she wandered over to them, feeling his hand slip from hers as he went to move to the other side of the table ducking under to come back up with a bowl. "I'm guessing for a large pumpkin a big thick knife would be best?" There was a surprised cough from across the table and a simple yes in response to her words.

Glancing up she looked to him for a more definite confirmation as she grabbed the knife. "That one will work fine." He was turning the pumpkin slightly as he spoke. "Okay." his movements stopped. "Just take the knife and cut a decent sized circle around the stem." he traced a circle around the stem to show her the size at which to cut it.

She hesitated for a moment before taking the knife and plunging the blade into the top of the pumpkin at an angle. After a moment she started dragging it around the stem at an angle to make a circle. A rather awkward circle, but a circle. "Like that?" she asked, glancing up.

"Yeah, so now we just remove the top." Reaching out he grabbed the stem and pulled up the circular piece she had cut into the pumpkin. "We won't need the knife anymore." he said setting the top off to the side. "Now you just reach in and tear out it's guts. When you find a seed seperate it and put it in the bowl."

Setting the knife aside she leant slightly forward over the table so she could dip her hand inside. Her hand felt cold... and slimy. "It's gooey." she said wrapping her fingers around what Ted had joking called 'guts' and pulled. Looking at her hand she saw it was covered in the orange looking string, now that she was up close she could see it looked, well, gooey. There weren't many words to describe it.

"There. You've successfully killed your first pumpkin." Glancing up from her sticky hand she saw he was smiling again. Glancing back down she pulled a few seeds she spotted and dropped them in the bowl absently. Her gaze went back to her hand, then she looked up at him. He blinked at her unreadable expression. "What?"

"You know your responsible for this pumpkins untimely death." He quirked a brow at her in response but there was a faint smile on his face as well as if he suspected what she was getting at. "Yet I'm the only one that looks like a murderer."

"I can see that." His smile had turned into a grin. "Maybe I'll join in next time but as I told you before I'm volunteering and should get back to it."

Andromeda frowned at the reminder the plan that had been forming in her mind fracturing quickly. She had been hoping he would stay around longer. "Next time then." she said while reaching forward to dive both her hands into the pumpkin, "When will that be?" Being careful to keep the disapointment from her voice and her face neutral as she spoke.

"The Wonderland will be here until October thirty first."

So a few more days then. She gave a nod of her head, saying bye waiting rather unpatiently for him to turn around. The moment he started walking away she grabbed at the gooey strings in her hands and skirted the table. It didn't take many steps until she was directly behind him and with ease she reached out to grab at the back of his shirt, pulling the collar back just long enough to drop some of the pumpkin guts down. There was a surprised shout and she turned quickly to run back behind the table.

There was pounding of feet from behind her. Turning back around she saw Ted was across from her on the other side of the table. "I'll get you for this later." he said but there was no anger in his voice, in fact he looked about ready to laugh again.

Andromeda just smiled at this. "Not now?"

His lip curled up into a classic smirk. "Wouldn't want to ruin your dress."

"That would be a tragedy." she said with a laugh. When he went to leave this time-giving her a pointed look over his shoulder-she stayed put to finish carving the pumpkin.


End file.
